Turbidimeters are widely utilized to test public water supplies for the presence of particulate matter suspended in the water. Examples of these instruments include the turbidimeter disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,544 (the '544 patent), as well as the updated version distributed by HF Scientific, Inc. under the brand name MICRO TOL™. These and other varieties of turbidimeters typically employ a glass cuvette or tube that holds the water to be tested. Light is directed through the test sample and turbidity is electronically calculated and displayed.
In more detail, the '544 patent discloses a turbidimeter 10 that operably connects to a water filtration system. The turbidimeter 10 includes a light source module 50 that produces a beam of light. The test sample is placed in the path of the light and a photodetector or analogous sensor 18 is positioned to sense light scattered by and/or passing through the test sample. Circuitry or an analyzer responds to the photodetector to produce a turbidity measurement.
The MICRO TOL™ instrument is a wall-mounted turbidimeter that allows measuring process water turbidity on-line using long life infrared lamps. The MICRO TOL™ instrument is plumbed into a water filtration system to display turbidity measurements. Periodically, the cuvette of the MICRO TOL™ instrument must be cleaned. The MICRO TOL™ instrument comes with an Owners Manual that discusses how to manually clean the cuvette in section 9.1.
Over time, inorganic particulates and organic contaminates such as algae tend to build up on the surface of the glassware holding the test sample. If the cuvette is not cleaned, the dirt can distort the measurements taken by the turbidimeter, which can produce erroneous readings. To avoid inaccurate test results, the user must frequently clean the glass and recalibrate the turbidimeter. This tends to be tedious, time consuming and inefficient. The user is likely to experience undesirable “down-time” as turbidity readings cannot be taken while the instrument is being serviced.
Currently, a cuvette or other glassware used for optical testing of water must be cleaned manually on a periodic basis. There are no known devices available that automatically and continuously clean the glassware so that improved measurement accuracy is achieved, but tedious maintenance and repeated service interruptions are avoided.